Legislative Just this month, Senator Silverstein’s bicycle helmet bill died an ignoble death when it could not garner enough votes for the latest in a long line of amended versions to make it out of committee. Since last month’s report, A.B.A.T.E.’s “Representative of the Year” Randy Ramey successfully used his HB 162 to help A.B.A.T.E., Illinois Department of Transportation, and the four State universities administering the Cycle Rider Safety Training (“CRST”) Program to reach an accord on critical elements of that Program. With that accomplished, we are not pushing for passage of the bill and are content to let HB 162 remain in committee. On the federal level, A.B.A.T.E. sent a 9 member team to meet with congressmen/women and senators in Washington, D.C. in the last week of April. Roger Larson, Rick “RO” Olson, Bert McElroy, Sheila Gallagher, Ryan Hubbard, Cathy Jackson, Enrique Silva, and Dan Harper joined me in our nation’s capital as we emphasized key issues on our Federal Legislative Agenda – especially the need to correct the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 so that youth ATVs and off road motorcycles would no longer be banned. We attended a congressional hearing on a proposed amendment to that statute while there. Another high priority item we emphasized was the revision of federal health insurance law to protect motorcyclists from being denied health insurance coverage just because of their choice to ride.
Executive Dan Harper and I met with Administrator Strickland, head of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and his staff for over a half hour whilst in Washington, D.C. I invited AMA (Ed Moreland) and MRF (Jeff Hennie) to join us in the meeting. In an earlier statement, Administrator Strickland had said that helmet use was at the “core” of motorcycling safety programs. At our meeting, Mr. Strickland assured us that he viewed nothing as “core” but that motorcycling safety must encompass multiple, eclectic concerns including education and equipment design and use. I left the meeting appreciative of the opportunity to connect with such a pivotal federal official in motorcycle safety, but I was also concerned that he might be more influenced with broad statistics that the factors that cause the numbers be what they are. Fortunately, we will be able to work with his staff on such details. On the state level, we will be facing additional State Police “safety checks” at large motorcycling events. I will study federal grants that pay for these roadblocks to our freedom as well as litigation in New York on this issue.
Judicial On 23 October 2008, Circuit Court Judge Zappa ruled that the Cycle Rider Safety Training (CRST) Fund could not protect money contained therein from subsequent “sweeps” by the General Assembly that would put CRST money into the General Revenue Fund. The Judge was not convinced that the General Assembly had jumped through enough legal hoops to create an enforceable, legal trust. After a very lengthy appeal, the 4th District of the Illinois Appellate Court ruled that the General Assembly could continue to “sweep” money out of the CRST Fund. In its Order, however, the 4th District determined that the CRST Fund was a legal, enforceable trust. The trouble is, according to the Appellate Court, this is a revocable trust and can be undone by the General Assembly by later actions of that body. Justice Tom Appleton agreed with our arguments that CRST trust fund money is beyond the reach of the General Assembly, but he was out-voted by the other two justices. We have until June 7th to ask the Illinois Supreme Court to overrule this decision. A.B.A.T.E. Legal Services will do that – and I’ll help as much as I can. One last note: Senator Dale Righter was awarded the A.B.A.T.E. “Senator of the Year” vest at the Awareness Rally. Representative Randy Ramey received our “Representative of the Year” vest. They richly deserved this recognition because of their efforts in furthering our interests in the General Assembly, including Senator Righter’s challenge of the sponsor of SB2535 (under 18 motorcycle helmet bill) and Rep. Ramey’s leadership in helping A.B.A.T.E. and IDOT reach an agreement on how the CRST Program should be operated. They were featured speakers at this year’s Rally. They were joined by Senator Bill Brady and Senator Gary Forby, a 2004 vest recipient. Senator Forby also lead the attack against SB2535 on the Senate floor. I shall try to keep future reports a bit shorter than this, but a lot has happened in the past few weeks. With your help, we will see a lot more positive things happen in the weeks and months to come. George Tinkham